Journal: Thinking vs. Walking

Note: This Journal entry was written on September 6, 2001, as I walked on the Old Tokaido. Take a look at that day's Logbook for more.

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Things I'm learning about LIFE by walking...

My friend Bob likes to say, "It is one thing to talk about bulls; it is another to face the bull." (It sounds better with his put-on Spanish accent.) The idea here is simple: talkin' ain't doin'. So if I sit and plan, and estimate, and revise, and guess--I don't move forward a millimeter. But if I walk, it's amazing how fast the mileposts fly by.

This is as true of life as it is of walking. Many of us spend more time planning than we do doing. We think instead of act. The two are different. Sure, thinking has a purpose, but one of the central tenets of most religions is that the mind can be an enemy, tricking us into doing the wrong thing--or, more often I suspect, tricking us out of doing the right one.

Gotta go. Gotta walk.

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Posted September 23, 2019